Photo Gift: Fast Mainstream Zoom Lens

Your DSLR probably came with an affordable zoom lens worth $200 on its own. But its optics are so-so. The largest aperture, or biggest light-gathering setting, is relatively modest at its widest-angle setting and falls further as you zoom toward telephoto. The downside to the faster lens is the price, $500 to $1,350, and some makers nick you another $25-$50 for the lens shade. The f/2.8 lens is also bigger and bulkier as you can tell from the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lenses above. With a high-speed zoom, you can do most all your indoor photography without resorting to using a flash, so the photos will look more natural. And the optics are better.

The high-speed, mainstream zoom lens typically have a zoom ratio of just over 3-1, from wide-angle to short telephoto. They also weigh 1.5-2 pounds with the shade, a half-pound more than their low-cost siblings, and stick out about an inch more (about 4.5 vs. 3.5 inches long). The lenses here all have image stabilization or vibration reduction (same thing, different terms) either built in to the lens or camera body. These are lenses that fit consumer and prosumer level digital single lens reflex cameras. They include:

Sony 28-75mm f/2.8 Zoom Lens, $700 street (built-in lens hood). Also fits Minolta DSLRs. This is more of a barely-wide-angle to medium-telephoto lens.

Third-Party Lenses from Sigma, Tamron

What if $1,000-$1,500 for the Canon and Nikon lenses is just too much – like, say, if the recovery hasn’t yet reached your neighborhood? Consider a third-party lens. The optics are similar to the other lenses here. If there’s a difference, say industry insiders, it’s that the construction doesn’t have the incredible ruggedness of working-pro lenses such as the Canon L series (with the off-white barrels). They come in versions for most every major DSLR camera model. Note the zooms on these lenses are just a bit less, 2.9-1 vs. 3.2-1 for the 17-55s.

Some of these lenses may have holiday rebates (not just instant rebates) that will knock another $50-$100 off the price. The prices cited here are street prices as of early in the 2010 holiday season and include instant rebates but not mail-in rebates.

About Apertures The maximum aperture or f/number description is a little confusing. Smaller numbers are better and the light gathering power goes up or down to the square of the number (it’s one of those Pi R squared calculations) so f/2.8 (pronounced F-two-point-eight) lets in twice as much light as f/4, and f/4 lets in twice as much light as f/5.6. A $200 kit lens might be an 18-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 lens, meaning f/3.5 at its widest-angle aperture and f/5.6 at its longest, most-telephoto aperture, or one-quarter the light gathering power of the f/2.8-always lens.